January 11 – “OPINION”. Many Thanks to John for today’s prompt, as we take a moment or two each day this month to reflect on words that come from the community. And thanks to Linda G Hill for getting us organized!

###

Favorite restaurant, family owned, the best place to be if you want home-cookin’ not your own. Reliable quality, too: good soups and bread, burger and fries, miracles with eggs, real pan-fried fish that doesn’t come frozen from an oversized plastic bag stuffed with suspiciously uniformly shaped and sized, already-breaded hunks of fish flesh. Cocktails creatively concocted, local brewery beer on tap, rich, heavy coffee, served up black or tarted up with cream and syrup, or a shot of whisky.

The real deal.

But the economy and recent political waves seriously challenge small businesses. As do the people who would visit by habit; hard to go out when you don’t have a job, or your job isn’t keeping up with the hectic cost of living. We go to support because we want them to be around when things settle down. They’re like family, and we’d miss our family meals.

We have the means, if we’re careful.

So Jock, Mary Anne, and I slide into our favorite booth by the window overlooking the summer patio. The snow out there is deep, and tonight’s additional inches are smoothing over the tire tracks of the slush-storm earlier in the day. We’ll have to be careful driving home, especially on the side streets; roads don’t always get plowed right away when we have a lot of weather. Plow drivers do their best.

Tonight’s special is a beef-vegetable stew cooked with a splash of red wine, choice of mixed green salad or fries for the side. It’s cold and we’ll need to shovel snow (again) from our driveway once the plows do go through, so Jock and I go for the special with salad. Mary Anne chooses the halibut and fries. We tuck in to the food, mostly silent, sipping our beers and digging the overhead ‘80’s music.

Until Jock speaks up.

“Mary Anne, you’re not eating your fries?”

“They’re off tonight. Too much salt.”

“That’s your opinion?” He tips his head sideways and reaches for a fry. She pushes the plate in his direction. He takes a couple and slides them into his mouth. He takes another, sniffs it, licks it, then nibbles the end until it completely disappears. Leaning back, he pronounces, “Salty as the Dead Sea, with an olde-worlde piquant that speaks to me of ancient civilizations rich in history.”

“Should we say something?” I ask.

“Naw. Wouldn’t want to trouble ‘em. Just an off night, I guess.” He reaches for another and raises a questioning eyebrow at Mary Anne. She pushes her plate over.

“I’m going to need another beer, though.” He raises a hand to the one waiter on staff tonight, and points to his empty glass. She smiles and turns to bring him another.

Every one of us is doing our best.

© Liz Husebye Hartmann (2026) 

To read others’ responses or join in yourself, please visit     https://lindaghill.com/2026/01/11/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-11th-2026/